Saturday, September 22, 2007

Bama Gets Reality Check - Michigan Beats Penn State Again

I have mentioned once before that I am only expecting Alabama to win about seven games this year. If they only won four, I would not be surprised. This is a rebuilding year and their schedule has some tough competition on it.

In order to win seven, they will have to win some of the big ones. They squeezed one of those out last week, and had they been more prepared, could have picked up another one tonight. As bad as they played and as bad as the play calling was, they were still in the game. I was not expecting them to win tonight, just as I was not last week. However, after seeing the game and seeing that they really had a chance to be victorious, I am greatly disappointed in their game and the coaching decisions. You have to give yourself a chance to win.

Last week, Alabama had Lady Luck on their side in several situations that occured in their game against Arkansas. Sometimes you make your own luck by trying hard and putting yourself in the right position. They did that last week.

They looked flat from the beginning tonight and never really got anything going. I place this loss directly on the coaching staff as the team looked unprepared in the first half. In addition, I lost count at the times that Alabama ran the ball behind the left guard or tackle on first down. Read that again...they consistenly ran the ball behind the left guard or tackle on first down. If I am sitting on the couch having a glass of tea, while eating chips and talking to friends and can still notice the pattern (did I mention that they continuously ran to the left on first down?), why can't Alabama's coaching staff notice it? They have an advantage over me in that they know that they are doing it, but then again, it is like they do not know they are doing it.

Georgia also knew that they were doing it, and probably picked it up in watching the Alabama-Arkansas film. I started seeing this left handed pattern last week, as well as conservative play calling, and hoped that they would both go away. I have seen enough of that the last few years.

They never gave themselves a chance to win in overtime. They ran to the left once, and threw to the left twice. All unsuccessfully. In this case, the left side was also the short side of the field, which gave the defense an extra player.

This one tonight is on the coaching staff, and it was almost like Mike Shula was calling the plays. Congratulations to Georgia for playing four quarters and executing.

Also,congratulations to Michigan in their win over Penn State. I thought that Penn State would move into the top 5 in the next couple of weeks and make a run at the national championship, but it will not happen this season. They were over-matched today, and Paterno's opportunity for a championship will be postponed. I had Michigan on my list of over-ranked teams and Penn State on my list of under-ranked. A smoking hot Penn State team lost to a Michigan team, which lost to a 1-AA team which lost to another 1-AA team today. I guess that is football.

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About Me

Married. Imprisoned. Deaf from all the nagging; although, optimistic about the future: I will die and all of the above will go away. Ok, I am just kidding. My wife is awesome and is my best friend, but I do have to be careful about talking about the start of football season. You see, she is a teacher and my counting down the days until football season begins triggers something that makes her think about school starting.
She loves her summer vacation as much as I love football season, so I have to be sensitive towards her, while being excited for me :) Otherwise, she will just get pissed at me for reminding her of when school starts.
2015..revision: You know, I wrote the above paragraph years ago in fun and having fun with my wife. However, I realized years ago that God had a plan when he put us together. Only he would know that I would develop a condition called Hyperadrenergic POTS Dysautonomia, and need someone to be my teammate and care-provider as we traveled this journey together.